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new map, Angolsium

hey guys

sometimes i get an idea that won't get out of my head and this is the beginning of that idea. lately, i've been working a lot with layers, border masks, and embossing (still can't get the hang of that) in corel photo paint. here is the result, see if you can figure out the continent i used as an example. shouldn't be that hard.

i'm trying to get symbols that would work for mountains, hills, forests, swamps, etc. still can't get what style i want yet. anyway, if anyone has any thoughts or ideas, let me know. i'm kind of stuck until i figure out a few things:

1. what style of map i want to do. old? atlas? new? FR? old Greyhawk? i dunno.
2. scale. i'm still working that out as well. i'm tempted to go 1 inch = 100 miles. that's about average, i guess.
3. since i'm thinking that this is going to be a map for the new 4th edition, i kind of want a lot of wilderness, with a few scattered duchies around. maybe a small kingdom, but for use with the "tiny points of light" dogma that WOTC is doing for 4th ed.

anyway, you guys have always given me some great ideas here, and also if you want to use this as a base to show me what could be done, go ahead. i'm open for all suggestions here. thanks!

Wouldn't call that a continent, really. I once based a fantasy world on the isle of Sodor. The Hackenbeck Horror, The Dwarven City of Culdee Fell, The Catacombs Under Kirk Machan, not to mention Tidmouth which was positively Lovecraftian. I love that place!

The phrase "tiny points of light" refers to the assumption and tone 4th ed. will have. Its pulled from the Wizards/Gleemax site where one of the designers stated:

"one of the new key conceits about the D&D world is simply this: Civilized folk live in small, isolated points of light scattered across a big, dark, dangerous world. Most of the world is monster-haunted wilderness. The centers of civilization are few and far between, and the world isn’t carved up between nation-states that jealously enforce their borders."

As someone whose been playing D&D since the 80's, I'm not very fond of that assumption at all. I've enjoyed Wilderlands of High Fantasy and other "desolate" settings, but I get greater enjoyment of having civilizations, kingdoms, and nations to use as props and background dressing--spy for this country, fight on behalf of that one etc (heck, Paizo is having an rpg designer search contest where one round involved designing a country--my favorite entry was a theocracy ruled by the severed head of its deity). However, I don't want this thread to turn into a rant against 4th ed., so back to the maps.

*Threadjack off*

To answer Terrainmonkey's original question, there are several mapping styles I like: the Harn style of maps are distinctive and nice to look at, Forgotten Realms I find to be quite colorful, and if you have the cartographic mad skillz, the Eberron style of maps are nice as well.

Whatever style you choose Terrainmonkey, I would give the map some type of dark flavor/tone. I'm not necessarily thinking of Ravenloft, but if the heroes in your campaign are tiny points of light in a great dark, the map should subtlety reinforce that notion.

In fact... Plan in inaccuracies. Maybe lay down some text that says, "Flabbanabba Mtns." Or whatever, but no symbol because people mostly know that they're, you know... over there... ish. Or just have wide spaces where the only markings are, like, "Werewolves" or maybe nothing at all. Certainly have ruins and such that're unmarked (on the player map). Fail to put a fork in the road down and when they come to it... who knows? Or put a road on the map that, really... isn't, well, a--to call it a path might be generous. It doesn't have to be in a deep dark forest, either. In the middle of a wide open plain that can be just as confusing and signal your distance from civilization.

okay, here it is, with woods and mountains. multiple copy pasting of both, as you can see. hopefully there is not a lot of redundancy, if there is, let me know. for some reason, i don't seem to like anything i've tried up to this point. even this somehow is failing to me. anyway, opine if you want.

Maybe its just me, but those symbols suggest to me a scale totally different from what I had assumed you'd be using based on the detail of the coast lines. In any case, if I were you, I'd go in and very carefully erase entire tree symbols, rather than have them cut in half near coast lines and where the mountains start. Just a couple of thoughts.